Official Couple

Some shows are made to be deliberately enticing to shippers, but for the most part relationships in the story are merely heavily suggested. This could be seen as a bit of cowardice to the writers, but a sympathetic view is it allows them to please many potential fans without alienating anyone else. It's what keeps The Unwanted Harem afloat, assures plenty of fun Ho Yay, and allows for plotline flexibility.

Sometimes, there's another couple that sometimes serves as a Foil and/or companion to the "official" couple that involves The Hero. This other couple usually involves The Lancer and a minor female. This couple is called the Beta Couple.

Mai-Otome switches things around a bit (thanks in part to Sitch Sexuality), pairing up Shizuru with Natsuki, Chie with Aoi, and Haruka with Yukino (the last two of which were subtexted heavily in the My-HiME anime).

Haruka (Sailor Uranus) and Michiru (Sailor Neptune) from Sailor Moon. A rarity in that unlike the show's main couple, they're quite popular and shipping either of them with men usually leads to an extreme backlash.

More importantly is the main character Usagi and her boyfriend Mamoru. Each has upwards of five people lusting after them, depending on the canon, but they are literal destined lovers. This doesn't stop the fanon, though.

Kimba and Kitty in Kimba the White Lion. Look, they're the only lion cubs in the whole series. It's pretty obvious that when they grow up, they'll marry and have kids.

Sakura and Syaoran in Cardcaptor Sakurawho confessed to each other at the end of the series, as well as Real Syaoran and Real Sakura from Tsubasa Reservoir Chroniclewho also confess their love at the end of the series.spoiler for Tsubasa's ending: the Clone Syaoran and Clone Sakura also married during the infinite time loop and Real Syaoran was apparently their son, not to mention Clone Syaoran was cloned FROM the Real Syaoran, making the whole thing a LOT more complicated and confusing at times, but in the end the clones were paired together as were the real versions.

Similarly to Touya and Yukito, Gingetsu and Ran in Clover, though they are slightly more canon as Ran is referred to several times as 'Gingetsu's partner', and Word of God states that they were written as an old married couple.

Eriol/Kaho is official too, though they never showed up in Tsubasa. There's always a chance they might later show up as a couple in xxxHolic though.

In both Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle and xxxHolic, Clow and Yuuko manage to achieve this status despite not appearing together in a single scene, and one (technically, both) of them being long dead.

Inuyasha has the pair of Sango and Miroku, who have had a steadily evolving relationship from their mutual introductions. Interestingly, Inu-Yasha himself is part of a triangle (with Kagome and Kikyo). The Manga finally resolves this issue by re-killing off Kikyo and giving her and Inu-Yasha a bittersweet closure so she can pass away in peace and he can let go of his guilt and be free to go with Kagome. In the Distant Finale Sango and Miroku have children and Kagome manages to return to the past to be with Inu-Yasha for good after some time spent stuck in the future.

Dan (short and acorn-headed) and Miyako Miyazaki in Bamboo Blade. The cast is still trying to figure out how this one works, although it helps Miya Miya is also a gag character who flips between sweet and psycho.

Yoshihiro Togashi originally did plan for Hiei and Mukuro to be an official item, but severe fan backlash prevented him from doing so.

Although the anime kinda implies the above in contrast to the manga

In the first drafts of the series Hiei and Kurama were supposed to be in a romantic relationship but Yoshihiro Togashi decided to leave them as close friends which would explain all the Ho Yay between them.

Rosette and Chrono and Joshua and Azmaria in the epilogue of the manga version of Chrono Crusade.

Shido and Madoka in GetBackers. Despite being the impetus of one side story and one major Story Arc, there isn't much to say about it beyond "it's cute," and "it works." Later in the manga, Hevn and Masaki.

While not explicitly said to develop a romantic relationship in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, the Toy Ship of Erio and Caro does fit in the sense that, as the trope description states, both are overtly paired off and it seems understood by the cast that the two are an item. Not to mention that their brief cameo in Vi Vid has them apparently sharing a flat together in World #61/Supools, and one of the Sound Stages has Caro actually following Erio into the men's side of a public bath to do some bonding—even suggesting that they take more baths together in the future—much to Erio's sputtered embarrassment.

Many examples in Fruits Basket: Kyo and Tohru, Yuki and Machi, Hatori and Kana (later Hatori and Mayuko), Shigure and Akito, Hatsuharu and Isuzu/Rin, Hiro and Kisa, Ayame and Mine. There are also official couples for minor characters.

Kaoru and Aoi in Ai Yori Aoshi. Slight subversion in that only two of the other cast members know it for a fact. Mayu's just going to have to live with it.

Mytho and Rue get together in the very last episode of Princess Tutu. Ahiru and Fakir have also pretty much become official by then, but it ends less happily for them.

The love between Guts and Casca in Berserk proved to be one of the catalysts that sent Griffith tumbling hard into his Face Heel Turn. In the manga's current timeframe, the two things driving Guts are his desire to punish Griffith and his desire to heal Casca's mind. The latter only slightly less than the former.

Although there have been some romance in Naruto, the series has yet to officially confirm any canonical couple (Naruto/Sakura for instance, or Naruto/Hinata) despite the endless list of canonical and non-canonical pairings from fans. The Asuma/Kurenai relationship is however confirmed in Part II, as we find out Kurenai was pregnant with Asuma's son/daughter.

Minato and Kushina, or Naruto's parents, is also canon.

There was also Tsunade and Dan. Jiraiya's feelings for Tsunade are blatantly hinted before the time of his death as well.

Mobile Suit Gundam Wing even with all main characters having an opposite sex partner only has a few confirmed couples. Duo/Hilde is implied, Relena/Heero and Une/Treize are heavily implied, but Noin/Zechs or rather, 6x9, is confirmed, played straight and driven over the top with some games giving them cute love hearts when both are fighting close to each other. Awww.

As of the Gundam Wing: Frozen Teardrop manga, Zechs and Noin, as well as Duo and Hilde are married, but in the latter case, they divorced later.

After War Gundam X has four final pairings (Garrod and Tifa, Jamil and Salah, Toniya and Witz, Ennil and Roybea) but at least two or three are pretty clear throughout the series and just need to evolve into full-fledged love.

Turn a Gundam has a couple most notably Loran and Queen Dianna Soriel as well as Harry and Kihel Heim.

From Mobile Suit Gundam 00, the fourth and presumably final ED could best be described as an Official Couple/BetaCouple montage, namely Saji Crossroad/Louise Halevy (the series' first couple since S1), Allelujah Haptism/Soma Peries, Lyle Dylandy/Anew Returner, and Setsuna/Gundam. The finale adds Patrick/Kati, wedding ceremony and all..

Kenshin and Kaoru from Rurouni Kenshin. Marriage and a child in the epilogue: it doesn't get more official than this.

Ueki Kyousuke and Mori Ai from The Law of Ueki. While not explicit in the anime it is made clearer in the manga and becomes fully canon by the end of the sequel series, The Law of Ueki Plus.

Austria and Hungary, who used to be married and are still romantically involved with each other even after the dissolution of their historical union, with Hungary being quite devoted to and protective of Austria and Austria showing his affection for Hungary by sending her gifts for Valentine's Day and being willing to forgo his Neat Freak prudishness to take his clothes off to get her a hat she likes during their Christmas outing.

Germany and Italy, who become an Odd Couple right from the get-go and the most overtly paired off male-male couple in the series. There's some vagueness about their feelings for each other, as Italy tends to Love You and Everybody and Germany doesn't take his repeated displays of affection seriously at first but it becomes increasingly clear, especially in the Buon San Valentino strips, that Germany does like Italy in that way and that Italy, for all his obliviousness, might just be reacting to Germany the same way he reacted to the Holy Roman Empire (who he did eventually become a 100% canon couple with before HRE's demise) because Germany and the HRE might just be the same person.

Japan and Greece fall into murkier territory, as while they're heavily implied to have slept together and Greece heavily implied to like Japan (not to mention the Together Umbrella scene), the possibility that it's just a Friends with Benefits or one-sided crush scenario and them not having quite the same "overtly paired off" vibe as the above three pairs leaves some wiggle room for fans of other pairings for them. Nonetheless, they're considered "all but canon" by pretty much all fans who ship canon pairings, and it's hard to deny that the Subtext for them comes across as awfully texty at times. Whether or not Spain and Romano or America and England fall into this territory too depends largely on personal opinion (Spain and Romano definitely have an "overtly paired off" vibe, to the point where even fans who don't like the pairing will acknowledge this, but America and England are more debatable).

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann has Simon and Nia, who were quite obvious even before the time-skip. To a lesser extent, Kamina and Yoko also are marked as such in other media or merchandise.

As of Chapter 252, Mahou Sensei Negima finally revealed two Official Couples in Nagi/Arika and Konoka/Setsuna. Both have been strongly hinted before, but confirmation is always nice.

Sket Dance: Himeko and Bossun.

Unique in some respect among Shonen because of how much attention it actually gets in the canon, and how even though Himeko is a Tsundere, the two are rather openly affectionate (in a non-sappy way, promise) for any manga period.

Kamui and Kotori also count as an Official Couple, even though she dies later on. In fact, rather than any of the other couples already mentioned, these two appear on the 'the Lovers' tarot card included with the tankoubon version [1]

The original Evangelion itself was famous for avoiding this trope altogether, as Shinji and Asuka never admit their feelings, Misato's love interest Kaji dies, and Touji and Hikari never quite tie the knot. Rebuild of Evangelion seems to be focusing on Shinji/Rei, but of course, the other shoe hasn't dropped yet....

Gendo/Yui is official in all versions of Evangelion (original or otherwise)

Rock and Revy of Black Lagoon are almost this, due to numerous... implications.

Nagasumi and San from Seto no Hanayome. They got "engaged" at the beginning of the series and, romanticshenanigans aside, they're both committed to the other. So much so that, in one episode, Nagasumi gets upset at himself for even thinking about meeting with someone who sent him a love letter because he already has San, even though he was just going to turn her down (and it was a trick anyway).

Daisuke and spoiler: Riku become a couple later in D.N.Angelalthough the series' manga still hasn't ended as it seems to be on hiatus again so it may end with different shippings later, but they seem to be canon at this time. In the anime they were also heavily implied to be canon by the end.

In Clannad (the Kyo Ani anime), Nagisa and Tomoya are an official couple from the start: neither of them could imagine not being with the other one, and Tomoya doesn't even seem to notice that several other girls are in love with him. Heck, Tomoya was a part of Nagisa's life even before she met or knew who he was!

By When They Cry's standards, a few of the couples from Umineko no Naku Koro ni look to be set in stone (unless it turns out someone's hiding something... again). Among those are: George/Shannon, Jessica/Kanon, Battler/Beatrice (However, these three couples become very messy due to the fact that all three cousins are in fact in love with the same person), and Bernkastel/Lambdadelta.

Unless they break up at some point due to obvious complications that may arise in such a relationship or unless the light novels are different (though I don't see why it would be), Celty and Shinra are pretty much official.

Hellsing has Pip Bernadotte and Seras Victoria. Though Word of God states that "if Seras wasn't a vampire and Pip wasn't a mercenary, they would be the perfect couple that everybody would be envious of."

Chapter 81 of the Ouran High School Host Club manga confirms that the official couple is Tamaki and Haruhi. The anime, on the other hand, left things wide open for any shipping to possibly happen, particularly since Haruhi had had several meaningful moments with the twins, Kyouya, and Tamaki.

Future GPX Cyber Formula has Hayato and Asuka, along with Beta Couples Shinjyo and Miki, Osamu and Clair and Shiba and Rena. The series ends with Hayato and Asuka's wedding ceremony with most of the cast attending it.

Shiba and Rena themselves are the official couple in the PlayStation game.

The anime adaptation of Slayers more or less cemented Lina and Gourry as an official pair since the end of season 2 when they share a kiss in another dimension. There's also Amelia and Zelgadis, but it's a bit more questionable.

Chapter 57 of Kaichou wa Maid-sama establishes Usui and Misaki as an official couple. Even before then, it's obvious to pretty much everyone.

Noelle and Yuusuke from Tenshi ni Narumon are an established couple already in the first episode, but fans tend to prefer Yuusuke paired with much more mature Natsumi. Also, Raphael and Mikael who in the last episode turned out to be the real main couple of the show, although they were pretty much established as a Official Couple from the moment Raphael appeared.

Otome Youkai Zakuro, spoiled from the start by both the opening and ending credits - Kei/Zakuro, Riken/Susukihotaru, Ganryuu/Bonbori&Hozuki.

Yes! Pretty Cure 5 has Coco and Nozomi. Really the only 100% official pairing within the rather large Pretty Cure franchise thus far. Every season has at least one highly probable pairing, some of which are basically accepted as canon. But Coco and Nozomi are the only pairing to have kissed, and Nozomi stated that she loved him in the final episode of the first season, among many other lovey-dovey things that certainly didn't happen with other (potential) pairings.

The only Official Couples in One Piece are minor couples who are married and even so, majority of the couples have one spouse either missing or dead. Some examples are Usopp's parents (mom dead, father a pirate) and Vivi's parents (mom dead, father still alive) and recently Princess Shirahoshi's parents (mom dead, father alive). In Gold Roger and Rouge's case, they are Together in Death.

Soul & Maka and Tsubaki & Black*Star in Soul Eater are probably leaning towards this, considering that it was stated early on that Tsubaki's the only one who can stand Black*Star enough to be his partner and the two are raising Angela together - not to mention they share a bedroom, whereas Soul and Maka are have their own Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other moments, despite being Vitriolic Best Buds. There was also that gender-bending Lust chapter in the Book of Eibon...

Cross Game ends with three of them: Nakanishi and his girlfriend from the track team, Ichiyo and Junpei, and finally Ko and Aoba.

Shaman King has Faust and Elisa who are Happily Married even though Elisa is dead Faust will join her as a ghost eventually, as well as Yoh and Anna. In the epilogue, it was heavily implied that Ren and Jeanne had a child together.

Holo and Lawrence of Spice and Wolfopen a shop and have a child in the end.

Peter Parker and Mary-Jane Watson from Spider-Man. Before a highly unpopular retcon, anyway. The backlash was so bad, that even Stan Lee didn't fully agree with the new direction, and kept the two together in the newspaper comic strip.

In the comics themselves however, the current official couple (as deemed by the current editorial) is Peter Parker and (the also highly unpopular) Carlie Cooper.

As of the conclusion to Spider Island, Carlie's gone, and Peter and MJ have grown closer. Whether this is actually going somewhere or if it's just Ship Tease to yank the fans' collective chain, only time (and Dan Slott) will tell.

Took on a Squicky quality once the Hawkgirl mantle was passed down, as the new one was actually the old one reincarnated into the body of her own niece. Whom Hawkman still tried to pursue a relationship with Because Destiny Says So. Despite being, at least physically, her uncle by marriage.

Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor were this for decades, but he has long since dropped off the radar.

Han and Leia in the Star Wars films. Notably, Luke doesn't get anyone until the Expanded Universe rolls around, aside from Leia kissing him once to mess with Han's head (a scene infamous for its retroactiveSquick). Anakin and Padme in the prequels.

Sky High has Will and Gwen which gives way to Will and Layla after Gwen proves to be using him all along. Word of God has confirmed that, had the film spawned a series as was the original plan, Layla would've gone with Warren. Where does this leave Will? Search us.

When Across the Universe begins, Jude is happily dating Molly and Lucy is happily dating Daniel. Then Jude and Lucy find each other, and we have a plot! Also, Sadie and Jojo, much to Prudence's chagrin.

Sam and Quorra from Tron: Legacy. It was actually quite refreshing to see that in spite of all them being an Official Couple, they kept things so subtle that they avoided what could have easily gotten the characters Strangled by the Red String.

In the first film, Tron and Yori - and their User counterparts Alan and Lora. The deleted scenes and novelization play it up.

Twilight: Bella/Edward, pretty much every vampire and imprinted 'couple', and later Renesmee/Jacob and Charlie/Sue in Breaking Dawn.

The Hunger Games: Katniss and Peeta (at least, as advertised by the Capitol), and Finnick and Annie. In Mockingjay, Katniss and Peeta end up together for real.

The Meq features this as one of the driving forces of the plot. Justified, and possibly deconstructed, because this is how they're able to reproduce because they Never Grew Up after the age of twelve, and their true love, or Ameq, is the only one, literally, that they can grow old with. Also subverted when the Ameq of a major character dies before the events of the book, meaning he can never get older EVER.

An odd example in A Song of Ice and Fire. There are several couples, many of them made up of POV characters, but a lot are loveless (Robert/Cersei) or chiefly political (Dany/Khal Drogo), and most of the remainder are strained by old betrayals and/or current events (Catelyn/Ned.) The only couple who seem to be genuinely deeply in love from the start of Game Of Thrones onward is Jaime and Cersei. At least until they break up in Feast, where the "only couple who seem to be genuinely in love" banner is passed on to Sam and Gilly.

This tends to shift around a lot, due to the fact that Anyone Can Die and Westeros is a World Half Empty. A lot of the couples from the start are split up now, and the level of love between the ones that remain is often deeply variable due to circumstance.

Deltora Quest have the very obvious Lief/Jasmine pairing. Can't get much more official than being married and having a Babies Ever After at the end of the series; followed by pairing up the very headstrong Barda with Lindal, Marilen and Ranesh...

Taran and Eilonwy in the Prydain Chronicles, although it takes them until the very end of the very last book to make it official.

Hal and Royston in Havemercy are effectively a couple by about the midpoint of the book, but due to the nature of their relationship, it remains...unconsummated. Interestingly, they're not nearly as reviled by the fandom as most official couples, even though very little of the fanfiction focuses on them - the general consensus seems to be that their romance was handled so perfectly in the book itself that there's nothing much to be added.

Despite being on opposite sides, Amy and Ian are pretty much set up this way in The 39 Clues.

In both the book and the movie of The Princess Bride, Westley/Buttercup is the official couple. Humperdinck and Buttercup nearly get married, but it's made very clear that they're not right for, and don't love, each other.

Kat and Tommy were indicated to be married in the distant future once and there's really nothing that's said otherwise since then. That could actually make them even more "official" than Kim and Tommy, who broke up and never got back together, no matter how much their supporters dislike that fact.

The biggest official couple in later series is Wes and Jen, where part of the plot is that Jen's fiance Alex (who looked exactly like Wes) was killed by the Big Bad and she was slowly warming up to Wes and the possibility of a Second Love.

Despite the writers' attempts to the contrary -- "PK Tech Girl", "I Do, I Think", and even "Eat Me", for example—there was no doubt who the Official Couple on Farscape were. John and Aeryn were awkwardly falling into tight spaces together or each other's arms in the first episode.

Numb3rs has two: Charlie and Amita for one, who have had tension since they were introduced, and Larry and Megan, which nobody saw coming.

Ross and Rachel in Friends, one of the most recognizable couples in television, whose convoluted romantic relationship was arguably the defining (or at least the most significant) arc of the entire show.

Also Monica and Chandler shared this with them in later seasons, although they quickly became a Beta Couple.

Star Trek: Enterprise had some confusion over this as there was some hints towards a T'pol/Archer romance, but was actually opposed by the actors themselves as it was a senior officer/subordinate relationship and generally inappropriate. Although there was plenty of T'pol/Trip as well, set up from the pilot with their intimate disinfecting and having Slap Slap Kiss vibes for the first two seasons. It became more overt in the third season and while it never became official in the series it was stated they did spend some time actually together.

Star Trek: Voyager: Neelix and Kes, then Tom Paris and B'Elanna Torres, but never Janeway and Chakotay to fan disappointment. In fact, given that the need for everyone to start pairing up was lampshaded early in the series (as they thought they'd take 70+ years to get home) it's surprising how little romance there was on the ship.

Captain Sisko and Cassady Yates. In fact this was made possible because she was a freighter captain who frequented the station, meaning he was not her subordinate. All other trek captains had problems with never being able to stay around long.

NCIS doesn't have Official Couples so much as it has Official former Couples, specifically McGee/Abby and Gibbs/Jenny.

Tony/Ziva has become this. It's basically the only couple actually discussed anymore.

Mal and Inara from Firefly, carrying all the requisite drama. Zoe/Wash, being married, are also very official, and have considerably less drama.

The American soap As the World Turns has quite a few "super couples", with a clear indication that they are meant to be together. One such super couple is Luke and Noah. Unlike their heterosexual counterparts, they have actually no other possible characters to hook up with, their story lines consisting instead of breaking up and making up every few months. In a soap, you can tell a couple is "truly official" after they make up for the third time. However, with the introduction of Dr. Reid Oliver, Luke has a viable second love interest, and is currently wanting Reid to fight for him.

Reid did, and Luke and Reid became the official couple with Noah barely seen.

Susan and Mike on Desperate Housewives were set up this way from day one; in fact when they finally got married in the third season finale we got a Lampshade Hanging from Susan's daughter Julie: upon the usual "reasons they shouldn't wed" question she replies "Are you kidding? They've been dragging this out for three years." Even after they broke up in a five year Time Skip, fans are just waiting for them to reunite. They do.

Sheppard/Weir was an example where the actors played their characters together like this, even if the writing didn't exactly follow it.

Stargate SG-1 - While they can't be together until one of them quits the military, Jack and Sam are very much the "it" couple of the show. According to Word of God, they were originally not intended to be this; but when the powers that be realized the fandom had latched onto the brilliant onscreen chemistry between Richard Dean Anderson and Amanda Tapping, they decided to go with it.

The new Battlestar Galactica had President Laura Roslin and Admiral William Adama, who, in contrast to the other couples on the show, took four years to finally acknowledge their feelings openly (they got off to a bit of a rocky start, what with the whole 'interferring in the military/coup d'etat' thing), although they first kissed in Season 2 when Roslin promoted Adama to Admiral.

Robin Hood and Lady Marian in Robin Hood. So obvious that it hardly warrants mentioning, except that the Fan-Preferred Couple of Guy/Marian had some fans vilifying Robin, listing the reasons why Guy was a better match for Marian, and clinging to the hope that they would somehow end up together. Ultimately Guy murdered Marian, effectively ending both ships, and yet there were still some that complained that it was Robin and not Guy who got the Together in Death scene with Marian at the end of the show.

Subverted on How I Met Your Mother, where Ted and Robin would be a textbook example of the Official Couple, if it weren't for The Narrator telling us since the very first episode that they actually don't end up together in the end.

Played completely straight with Lily and Marshall, however. They've already been together 9 years when the series begins, and flashforwards show them still being happily married in the year 2029. However, once they got married they mostly became the Beta Couple.

As of the season 7 finale. Barney and Robin are ulimately confirmed to be this.

This show also has the interesting variation with Ted and the mother, it's a couple so official the show's named after it, but half of that official couple is completely unknown.

Gilmore Girls had several Official Couples: Lorelai/Luke and Lorelai/Christopher and then Rory/Dean, Rory/Jess and Rory/Logan. By the time the show ended though, Lorelai and Luke decided to split and Rory was single. Naturally, this lead to Ship-to-Ship Combat. There were also the Beta Couples in Sookie/Jackson, Lane/Zach, and Paris/Doyle.

Funnily enough, Chris Carter insisted that Mulder and Scully were never supposed to be anything but platonic work partners. The writing, however, suggests otherwise.

Mulder and Scully do take a backseat to Doggett and Reyes in season 9.

Glee: Rachel and Finn are pretty much the flagship couple of the series. Everything romantic that revolves around these two characters, even if it's involving other characters, generally ends up related in some way to them as a couple.

There is also Emma and Will.

As of "Original Song", Kurt and Blaine are also a couple.

As of "Pot O Gold", Brittany and Santana.

Psych sets up Shawn/Juliet over and over and over again...and then, at the end of season three, has Juliet confess that she is, in fact, in love with Shawn, while he was on a date with another girl. Since then, it seems to come up occasionally, but it's hard to tell if they've both moved past it or are just waiting for the right moment again.

Brenda and Dylan were pretty much the main official couple of Beverly Hills, 90210 in the early seasons, but the pairing of Dylan and Kelly became so popular at the time that he ended up with her instead. Of course now, most fans wished he ended up with Brenda instead.

Niles and Daphne managed to be an official couple throughout eight whole years of Unrequited Love, UST, and Will They or Won't They? before even making a move, never mind getting together, and despite Niles being married to someone else for the better part of that period. They were relegated to Beta Couple afterwards.

While Passions had several official couples, the most prominent ones were Ethan & Theresa and Luis & Sheridan, although only the former ended up together with Luis ending up with Sheridan's niece Fancy, and Sheridan ending up with Luis' brother, Antonio, her first husband.

John Sheridan and Ambassador Delenn of Babylon 5, who, as mentioned elsewhere, walked through fire for their love and lasted the entire run of the show.

On ER, couples came and went, with pretty much everyone dating pretty much everyone else at some point or another. The longest-lasting and most plot-driving couples on the show were Mark and Elizabeth and Abby and Luka, with minor pairings being Susan with flight nurse Chuck, Peter and Cleo, and lesbians Kerry and Sandy, which ended tragically.

Kamen Rider Ryuki has Ren and his fiancee Eri as an established couple; and also Kitaoka and Reiko as a Will They or Won't They? of this trope. In the movie, Shinji meets Miho and they are an implied Official Couple themselves.

John Crichton and Aeryn Sun of Farscape. The chemistry between them left many a fangirl panting. And there was a lot of chemistry, right up until the very end. (Also a very neat avoidance of Shipping Bed Death.)

Snow White and Prince Charming in Once Upon a Time. They start out the show getting married, so even though in the present they aren't together, ya know it's gonna happen again eventually.

In The Closer, Brenda Leigh Johnson and Fritz Howard start out as friends with UST, reunited when Brenda's new job moves her close to him, and their relationship progresses to dating, engagement, and marriage in a fairly predictable manner.

While Fire Emblem's support system is designed to allow mix-and-match pairings, several characters in Radiant Dawn have a specific love interest whom they will marry at the end of the game, provided the support level between the two of them is high enough; Calill and Largo are already married when they're introduced, which just means you don't have to do the work.

Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade and Fire Emblem (Blazing Sword in Japan) (and to some degree, The Sacred Stones) are an odd mix of following and subverting this Trope. Most Fire Emblem games leave character coupling a bit more open to truly please as many fans as possible. Generally a main character can have around five possible romantic endings, where background cast generally has at least one, with a few Ho Yay and Les Yay pairings that are less obvious in the English version.

The first half of Genealogy of the Holy War was a memorable exception to this openness, as Diadora becomes bonded to main character Sigurd as soon as she joins the party. This is the type of Official Couple that is rare in Fire Emblem games.

To further show the confusing quasi-subversion here, The Binding Blade and its Prequel Blazing Sword do not deny many Couples. Most of the cast in Blazing Sword that have kids in Sealed Sword don't explicitly name the other parent, so 2-3 other characters can end up marrying them by the player's choice of gameplay. Only six of the characters in Blazing Sword have defined relationships: the Fighter Bartre must end up with the swordmaster Karla, the sage Pent and the sniper Louise are married from the start, and the shaman Canas has a wife and son we never meet (though it turns out he's one of the mages in Sealed Sword, Hugh). Hawkeye is also married, and the father of The Archer Ingrene in Sealed Sword.

That said, the game really seems to push Eliwood/Ninian, Hector/Lyn, and Nino/Jaffar, even though most of these characters have other romantic options as well. Unlike other pairings, these three couples have scenes of romantic tension even outside their support conversations.

Sothe and Michiah from Radiant Dawn are so official that they start out with max support for each other. You have to go out of your way to make them not end up together.

Though they never appear to formally "hook up" in any of the games, the majority of fans of The Legend of Zelda who care at all about shipping generally regard Link and Zelda as the Official Couple. To be fair, this is corroborated a good bit by the manga, the animated series, and the comic books, though none of these are confirmed as canon.

Word of God says that in the Wind Waker timeline, there will be some romance between the two. She also has a more active role in that subseries.

Finally an official couple at the end of Spirit Tracks; after finishing off the Big Bad, they walk off holding hands.

In Zelda II, it is implied the Princess kisses Link behind a closing curtain at the end of the game; in the combined Oracle games, Zelda gives Link a kiss on the cheek, and he swoons.

Certain games seem to push the Link/Zelda relationship angle more than others. For instance, they're definitely implied to become a couple in Wind Waker while the ones in Twilight Princess don't even interact that much, appear to have a significant age difference between them, and Link seems way more interested in Ilia. This is likely for the best as all Zeldas are related to each other and at least some Links are, making it incest if they always paired up.

Seemingly become a couple at the end of Skyward Sword, where they decide to remain on the surface, renaming it Hyrule and found the royal family.

Of course, the Original Generation games carry all of the above, but also ropes in the forgotten character archetypes from the first Alpha game and pairs them up (Ryoto Hikawa/Rio Mei Long, Tasuku Shinguji/Leona Garstein, Yuuki Jaggar/Ricarla "Carla" Borgnine).

The Masou Kishin story also has Masaki Andoh and Wendy. It also features Tytti Noorbuck and Ricardo Silvera (although the latter coupling's played tragically.

Gordon and Alyx in Half-Life 2. Gordon is silent and controlled by the player, but Alyx has clearly fallen for Gordon.

Knights of the Old Republic and Neverwinter Nights (the main campaign) suffer from only having one option for each gender of player character (Juhani doesn't really count; that arc was never really developed). Cut content in Neverwinter Nights 2 ensures that there is only one option for each gender in the main campaign and in Mask of the Betrayer, but technically with restored content plus the fact that the same character is running through both stories gives each gender three options, but the fact that the main campaign options all died in the Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies ending and Neeshka was one of the cut characters forces us to the conclusion that male character/Safiya and female character/Gann were what the writers intended.

Mass Effect does its best to avert this. However, the trailers always feature a male Shepard and pick a single woman to market as his love interest, for the most part. A traditional human choice is picked for both games: Ashley in the first (with the other option being a blue—albeit very human-looking—alien) and Miranda in the second (opposed to the bald-and-crazy Jack or The Faceless alien Tali).

However, other than the trailers, almost everyone, devs included, stay away from calling the human love interests 'official.' Good thing too, because the majority of the fandom would rip them apart if they did.

Let's not forget all the Disney Canon couples who appear in the series. Sora and Kairi's relationship is actually compared to quite a few of them.

Mario and Princess Peach from Super Mario Bros. and all of its sequels and spinoffs. For all the times he's had to go to "another castle" to go after her, you'd figure the poor guy would get somesort of reward.

"Unusually", Peach has a ring on her middle finger in Brawl.

Given how much the two appear together in side games, Luigi and Daisy may be moving in this direction as well.

Chester and Arche as well. When everyone had died in the far future, Arche grieved Chester's death the most.

Stahn and Rutee from Tales of Destiny, and since their kid is the main character in the sequel, it's probably the most official of all Tales's couples.

And said kid (Kyle) forms another official couple with Reala. In fact, in the end of the game the universe acts to put the timeline back on its tracks, but opens an exception for Reala for her to be with Kyle. Because the couple is just that official.

Tales of Eternia was very Official Couple-y: with Reid/Farah and Keele/Meredy both being official by the end and Max already married, Chat is left as the only member of the party not in an Official Couple when the credits roll.

The official couple for Tales of Graces is Asbel and Cheria, even though Cheria's not the main heroine. The kicker is the Distant Finale scene of Sophie looking after a kid who looks like Asbel and Cheria.

Tales of Legendia... well, it's complicated. Both Shirley and Chloe are in love with Senel who, despite Ship Tease, doesn't seem to like any of the two particularly, instead claiming to not be over Stella, his dead girlfriend. In the end of the first half of the game, he seemingly hooked up with Shirley... but then Character Quests kick in, and he's still in the single men zone. So, you could say that Senel and Stella were an Official Couple, but after she was Killed Off for Real so was the Official Coupling, but Senel just can't seem to get that through his head.

Food for thought - when Zelos lists all the Tales series' official couples in Viva Tales Of, he puts Senel with Shirley. That's the closest we got to official word by Namdai about the subject.

Assassin's Creed: Revelations has Shaun Hastings mention that Lucy Stillman said that she "liked" Desmond Miles, not that that does anything now that killed her under Juno's possession.

Chaz Ashley and Rika in the 4th installment of the Phantasy Star series. Word of God via the prelims for a canceled sequel support this.

Fox and Krystal in the Star FOX games. Ever since her introduction, it's been made clear that one of Krystal's roles (outside of the more obvious) is that of Fox's Love Interest. Command left things in doubt when they split up briefly (some endings featured them getting back together, some featured them splitting apart), but it seems that game is being ignored and her profile in Super Smash Bros Brawl the later year, whilst acknowledging their "relationship problems" from Command still cites them as being romantically involved at current time.

In the second game, Sheba makes a comment to Jenna along the lines of "Aren't you and Isaac, like... an item?"

However, the corresponding Garet/Mia, while not technically sunk, would require some serious violations of Occam's Razor and even then wouldn't result in them being Happily Married, as each has a playable child (as does Ivan).

The third Professor Layton game gives us the background of Layton's only known canonical relationship—his college sweetheart, Claire. It's heavily implied that he was going to propose to her the day she was killed in a time machine explosion.

Lunar Silver Star Story has Alex and Luna, Nash and Mia, and Jessica and Kyle. Lunar 2 has Hiro and Lucia, as well as Ronfar and Mauri.

In Silent Hill Homecoming, Alex and Elle are heavily implied to be around that area or moving toward it, if not already there.

Breath of Fire II strongly implies that the Ryu and Nina from the original Breath of Fire married.

Likewise, the film version of Persona 3 has largely made The Protagonist and Aigis official.

King's Quest : Graham and Valanice are Happily Married, as are Alexander and Cassima. Rosella and Edgar wisely agreed to a proper courtship canonically, but the Fan Sequel opens on their wedding day.

Space Quest: Roger Wilco is fated to marry and have a son with Beatrice. However, that didn't stop Flo from shamelessly flirting with him, nor did it prevent the Two Guys from throwing in some interesting Ship Tease with Stellar Santiago in the final game.

Wain and Seena in the Legend Returns. Seems like Maxim's descendants are destined to end up with blue hairincarnations of Erim for most of the times.

While it's left ambiguous enough that shippers could argue either way, Skies of Arcadia hints heavily that its official couple is meant to be a Vyse/Aika/Fina OT3.

Enrique and Moegi is more official. The first scene of the ending is their marriage.

Arguably in BlazBlue, this seems to be the case of Litchi Faye-Ling X Lotte Carmine/Arakune. However, Litchi never once referred him as her 'love' (nor declared her love), but more like a really close friend she's desperate to save.

Mia and Diego from Ace Attorney. Diego's even referred to Mia's boyfriend by Grossberg at one point.

Also to some extent, Gumshoe and Maggey. If only the big lug could work up the courage to ask her out, weenies just don't quite have the same effect.

Ron and Desiree Delite

Tomoya and Nagisa in Clannad. While it is a Dating Sim, Nagisa has both the anime, the movie, the cover of the game and the after story (plus its anime) on her side.

Oddly enough, despite being quite clearly the official couple (every other route is also canon... as a build up to the grand finale dedicated to Nagisa), Nagisa doesn't get the sequel. Tomoyo did.

Technically, she doesn't even really have an appearance except in the first two routes and Shiki can end up with one of five girls, but Arcueid/Shiki is basically Tsukihime's official couple. Her own path is first, the anime is based on her, the manga is based on her and she gets a Tenchi Solution in Ciel's good ending. Oh, and despite Melty Blood supposedly being based off Satsuki's route, Sion mentions that Shiki and Arcueid are lovers, though apparently they don't live together.

That's not so much because her route is the name of the game, but because she herself is the name of the game (specifically, tsukihime, "moon princess").

Actually, yes. According to a side-story where all of the girls meet up in a cafe to discuss how things went, Arcueid's path is the story of Tsukihime. On the other hand, though, her path is not the story of Shiki Tohno, the main character. That honor belongs to either Akiha, Hisui, or Kohaku. Still no word which one of them is part of the Official Couple though.

The Far Side routes could be considered the story of Tohno Shiki in that it reveals a lot about Shiki's history and secrets, much in the same way as the "Unlimited Blade Works" path in Fate/stay night being, by Word of God, the story of Shirou or Shirou's route. However, again by Word of God, Arcrueid's and Saber's routes are the true story in each respective game.

It appears that Akiha's route is most likely the "official" Far Side route, due to Carnival Phantasm's focus on her more than Hisui and Kohaku. Not to mention Akiha being alongside the Near Side characters as the three main heroines from the Tsukihime side of the Nasuverse.

Ash and Emily from Misfile are dancing around the issue right now, mostly due to personal issues, but it's fairly obvious that they are going to end up together. The forums like to refer to the two as "lovers without benefits".

Jeph Jaques is on record saying that Martin and Faye were the official couple for the first 500 strips or so; however, before it visibly materialized, he changed his mind (later saying in the comic that they would have been a terrible couple) and delivered a Wham! Episode that got rid of Martin/Faye and set up Martin/Dora. He later paired Faye up with Angus McPhee. However, he then broke up Marten and Dora and put Marten together with Padma, a new character, only to reveal that Padma would be leaving soon to California to take care of her mother. There's no other official word on it yet.

Except until recent developments where Kazuo goes off the deep end and Miharu gives him up. The author has a way of messing with official couples—remember when everyone thought Maya and Fuuko were SO going to be a couple?

Legion of Nothing has a few of these. The current Heroes League has Nick and his girlfriend Haley. Earlier you had Nick's grandfather Joe Van Der Sloot and his wife Romy.

While mostly having a reputation for slash, the TGWTG fangirl fandom adored former real-life pairings Linkara/Iron Liz and Spoony/Scarlett. We also had a "that's so adorable!" Squee over Doug getting engaged to his girlfriend.

Aang and Katara on Avatar: The Last Airbender. Co-creators Mike and Bryan openly state that it is not the result of fan opinion, but a concrete element of the storyline from the get-go when they were developing it in like 2003. It's not hard to believe that Aang/Katara was intended from the get-go, since there's a He Is Not My Boyfriend moment in the second episode.

Zuko and Mai as well. Like Kataang, it is planned right from the start.

Kim and Ron on Kim Possible. When the series came back for a fourth and final season, the creators have repeatedly commented that they backed themselves into a corner with the trope, and had to be extremely careful not to jump the shark or gross out the ten-year-olds watching.

To be fair, the creators didn't expect the show to have a fourth season, because of Disney's episode-number limit. They thought the series was ending with the So the Drama movie.

Bonnie and Senor Senior, Jr. are not only an Official Couple, but also the Beta Couple, which must rankle Bonnie as the Alpha Bitch.

Danny and Sam in Danny Phantom. Really not much of a challenge, as the only other major available female characters are the proverbial Catwoman and a second example of a Romantic False Lead. Like most examples, at times, it's almost as if she's only there so that the writers can drop anything-but-subtle hints at the prospect of them "pairing up" in the last two seconds of the series.

Speaking of Batman Beyond, it has the new Batman, Terry McGinnis, and his mostly-steady girlfriend Dana Tan. The JLU episode "Epilogue" confirms their Official Couple status by strongly implying that Terry was about to propose to Dana.

Nova and SPRX-77 as well; and they had a Slap Slap Kiss vibe through the show's entire run, which makes it even more astonishing it ended up on Toon Disney.

Spova may or may not have some weird circumstances for that. Some of the things said by a voice actor and hinted at earlier in the series point to that Sprx and Nova may have not been originally intended, and is a case of Relationship Writing Fumble. But, if the fan theory is right, it was such a heavily Fan-Preferred Couple that the creator decided Sure Why Not and gave Sprx a crush on Nova.

Ed and Deetz from Get Ed are confirmed through episodes as liking each other that way (with on screen kisses, shock).

Codename: Kids Next Door: Numbuh 3 and Numbuh 4, and, as confirmed in the finale, Numbuh 2 and Numbuh 5. Numbuh 1 and Lizzie were an Official Couple for six seasons but broke up shortly before the series finale (and we never are told if Numbuh 1 found someone else).

Beast Wars: Blackarachnia and Silverbolt; carried over into Beast Machines, where Blackarachnia redeems a brainwashed Silverbolt via The Power of Love. What made this very poetic was the fact that Silverbolt, in the preceding series Beast Wars, had been The Ace and Blackarachnia had been the Dark Action Girl (and Silverbolt had been the one to convert her to the good side), so Blackarachnia being the one to redeem Silverbolt after he had originally redeemed her in Beast Wars was a nice way to bring things full circle.

Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers: It's Zach/Eliza, Shane/Niko, and Doc/Maya. This fandom is highly unusual as it won't cross those lines for the main four. The only time it might is in flashbacks, or "missing scenes" for a couple episodes.

Henry and June form KaBlam! start out being friends, but with June having a crush on Henry (and usually shows this by being a total brat towards him). The so-called "series finale" ended with her kissing him, and in season four (at least until after "A Nut in Every Bite!"), the duo have stopped fighting and became closer than ever before (cue "awwwwww"s).

Cuddles and Giggles in Happy Tree Friends. An odd example, as she has been shown flirting with (or even dating) other characters even after the couple was established. Then again, this is Happy Tree Friends, where characters frequently die horribly only to be fine in the next episode...

Superboy and M'gann in Young Justice, as of episode 11. Though they've broken up during the five year time-skip and now M'gann and La'gaan are a couple. Also Wally and Artemis, as of episode 26. And played straight, they have been together for five years during the time-skip.